BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Noticed any mistakes?

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** February 22, 2012 7:43 pm

When Sherlock is stood outside deciphering the code using the A-Z he is practically right outside 221B - he didn't get chance to go very far because he hailed a cab, missed it because he bumped into the tourists and then was stood there for ages looking through the A-Z.

How could he not notice someone come up to the door of 221B, hit John over the head and then kidnap John and his girlfriend??!

**Posted by tobeornot221b** February 22, 2012 9:10 pm

When going through the book, Sherlock doensn't stand just right outside 221B any more - he has run a few meters after the German tourists in order to grab their book. Apparently he is so lost in his work that he doesn't notice anything around him. But yes - it's all a bit unlikely!
As for the tourist actors: They are clearly no Germans. Even Benedict's German sounds better than theirs. (He btw is the only one to pronounce "Reichenbach" almost correctly!) And they use phrases you never would as a German: "Was will der? Gib mir doch mein Buch zurück!" sounds wooden. I'd say: "Was soll das? Her mit dem Buch!"
Why oh why wasn't I asked to play the tourist's role?

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** February 22, 2012 10:05 pm

Lol, you should have been - you would have been much better!

What is the correct pronunciation of Reichenbach then? I've always pronounced it "Rykenback" if you know what I mean...

**Posted by Davina** February 22, 2012 10:13 pm

It's like: rye...can...Bach. Not a hard ck sound at the end, more like the ch ending to the word loch.

**Posted by Davina** February 22, 2012 10:14 pm

**Posted by tobeornot221b** February 22, 2012 10:24 pm

Hmm. difficult to describe the pronounciation of "Reichenbach"... the "ch"s are no "k"s but two different sounds. The first "ch" is kind of "sh", the second "ch" is something between a breath sound and a grunt... "Ry-shen-bach" (the "a" is like the "u" in "fun")
Listen to Sherlock on the roof - he's got it almost right!

**Posted by Davina** February 23, 2012 11:39 am

The 'ch' is really hard to describe, you're right there. Looking back the 'ch' as in 'Chen' isn't really quite 'can' as I put before. You have to tuck the back edge of your tongue up against the back of your teeth. The second one is similar sounds made in Welsh or in the proper Scots pronunciation of 'loch', except the 'o' is a different vowel sound before, which alters it a bit.

Thinking of how folks in the north of England speak helps too. Think of flat vowel sounds.

Gosh this is harder to describe than I thought. Do you think Benedict learnt German when he was at Harrow?

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** February 23, 2012 4:00 pm

Harrow? Did he go to Uni there?

**Posted by Davina** February 23, 2012 4:47 pm

No he went to the public school there. He went to Manchester University.

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** February 23, 2012 4:49 pm

Really? That's where I come from! Although, I went to school in Manchester and Uni in Leeds.

**Posted by kazza474** February 24, 2012 2:32 am

Sherlock Holmes wrote:
How could he not notice someone come up to the door of 221B, hit John over the head and then kidnap John and his girlfriend??!

We're talking about Sherlock here. This is the guy who can ask John for things after John has gone out of the room/flat. This is the guy who sits deep in thought for hours & then speaks to John when he hasn't been there for hours.
He was focussing on the task at hand. All other movements around him are blocked out while his brain is in action.

I'd say the scene portrays Sherlock quite well really.

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** February 24, 2012 1:20 pm

kazza474 wrote:
Sherlock Holmes wrote:
How could he not notice someone come up to the door of 221B, hit John over the head and then kidnap John and his girlfriend??!
We're talking about Sherlock here. This is the guy who can ask John for things after John has gone out of the room/flat. This is the guy who sits deep in thought for hours & then speaks to John when he hasn't been there for hours.
He was focussing on the task at hand. All other movements around him are blocked out while his brain is in action.

I'd say the scene portrays Sherlock quite well really.

That's true actually, never thought about that. He becomes so absorbed in what he's doing that everything else just vanishes into the background. It's kind of ironic though that someone who has such good attention to detail can miss something so drastic!

**Posted by kazza474** February 24, 2012 1:57 pm

Well anything going on around him is irrelevant when he is deducing.

**Posted by Davina** February 24, 2012 3:01 pm

I am going to use that as an excuse next time for avoiding the housework! I shall say I was lost in my mind palace!

**Posted by Ceto** February 25, 2012 11:42 am

Nice excuse that one! But i doubt it will work on my strict english teacher XD but it doesn't hurt to try! (Well really, with my teacher it probably will... )

Last edited by Ceto (February 25, 2012 11:43 am)

**Posted by Davina** February 25, 2012 12:05 pm

**Posted by kazza474** March 19, 2012 5:14 am

The scene where they are looking for the cipher in the tunnels/railway area bugs me.
John comes across splashes of paint on the tracks, as if they've been splashed from a paint tin. But the ciphers appear to be done with a spray can.

That just annoys me.

**Posted by Wholocked** March 19, 2012 6:15 am

Oh no - the annoying thing about that part is that somehow he's able to take a photo ON HIS PHONE of the entire wall, lit up with his torch?! More like a floodlight.

**Posted by kazza474** March 19, 2012 6:44 am

Lol! Phones are remarkable things these days.

Twice we see Sherlock trying to be ultra clever by deduction in this show only to be 'outdone' by John with commonsense.
1. Trying to get John to hone in on his memory when all the time he had a picture on his phone.
2. When they are looking for the shop that Van Coon must have visited, Sherlock trying to retrace his steps & bumps into John & John was just looking for the shop on the receipt he had.
Poor Sherlock.

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** March 19, 2012 7:49 am

kazza474 wrote:
Twice we see Sherlock trying to be ultra clever by deduction in this show only to be 'outdone' by John with commonsense.
1. Trying to get John to hone in on his memory when all the time he had a picture on his phone.
2. When they are looking for the shop that Van Coon must have visited, Sherlock trying to retrace his steps & bumps into John & John was just looking for the shop on the receipt he had.
Poor Sherlock.

Yeah I find those bits both pretty funny. I love it when he's spinning John around to try to get him to focus his mind, lol.

Also, I totally know what you mean about the phone. Maybe he just has a really powerful flash on his camera. Mine would SO never do that.